Friday, December 30, 2016

Kerbal Space Program - 15/20 hours

The good thing about playing dozens of games for 20 hours each is that I am in no danger of succumbing to my own hubris. Which is to say, going to the moon in Kerbal Space Program is kicking my ass. I've almost got it, but the trick is that both my ship and my piloting needs to be completely on point. And obviously it's not there yet. I've gotten into an orbit around Mun and I was set to return to Kerbal, but I ran out of fuel in my final burn. I just have to figure out a few tweaks to squeeze out the last few million kilometers.

It's interesting. I don't think I've ever played a game that's been quite so pure an intellectual challenge. I feel like I should be paying close attention to the numbers and working out the equations. I used to be able to do that sort of thing, many years ago, and I always tell myself that I could do it again, given a good enough reason.

However, I'm not sure Kerbal Space Program is that reason. A decade's worth of post-collegiate brain-rot is a tough thing to overcome, and it is just a game, after all. Eyeballing it is really good enough. Besides, I don't think I could manage the split-second timing or precision turns involved, and I've only got another five hours to practice.

The advantage to it being such a brainy game, though, is that I can feel really smug when I succeed. I'm not quite there yet, but with any luck, I will be soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About the Blog

I have an excessively large Steam library, and I'm a little embarrassed to confess that I have not played most of them nearly as much as I should (some I have not played at all). Thus this blog was conceived - I will play my entire Steam Library, spending at least 20 hours on each game. And then I'll write about them.

2 games to go

An Offer to Developers

If you send me a review copy of your game, I will play it, and I will write at least one post about it. I won't necessarily go the same 20 hours as I do with the main blog games, but I'll do my best to give it a fair shake and experience all it has to offer.

This is mainly directed to small, struggling indie developers seeking feedback on unfinished or unsuccessful projects, but in the unlikely event that someone from a big-time studio stumbles across my blog and has a project they want to share, the offer extends to anyone who is involved in making a game.

The point of this offer is to help people find and build an audience by creating a review and commentary that you can link to as part of your promotion for the game. I can't deliver much of an audience, but I'm guessing that if you're in the position where my opinion seems valuable to you, then every little bit counts.

About Me

I am a creature of the night - Blah!
Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but I do work the night shift, and I have a lot of time on my hands. Time to do things like, say, blogging.
I like to pretend it's a type of productivity.